Maeve Hosier, a recent doctoral graduate of NUI Galway, has published her thesis The Regulation of the Legal Profession in Ireland. After seeing her Law & Society Asssociation conference talk on the Irish financial meltdown and its implications for the profession, I asked to include her larger study in my Quid Pro Books publishing project's Dissertation Series. She agreed and we worked hard all summer to get it out in time to be considered while reform legislation is on deck. In earlier legislative debate, Ireland's Minister of Justice called it "marvelous" and declared it "compulsory reading." Then John Flood generously provided a Foreword and explained the worldwide implications of Maeve's observations and comparative research (she looked particularly at other bailout nations, Greece and Portugal). The book came out this week, with paperback linked at Amazon (more general information here). Consider recommending it to be adopted by a law library. Here's the abstract to John's intro as posted on SSRN:

The foreword shows how in the recession of 2008 lawyers escaped culpability while bankers were excoriated for their role in it. Nevertheless in Ireland, when it became a debtor country in the Eurozone, the Troika (IMF, EU, ECB) enforced a restructuring of the legal services market. This is viewed in the global context of a shift towards liberalisation of the legal services market at national and supranational levels. Despite the shift lawyers are rejecting change where they can, or, if they are unable to resist, at least attempt to delay it.

Somewhat unrelated, and lighter reading to be sure (more of a commuter or beach read), we also published this week a lawyer's novel-like true account of a trial stemming from a shipwreck, The Widow Wave, by Jay Jacobs (or in Kindle, etc.). And completely unrelated is a modern take on Cicero's "On Old Age," called How to be Old, by Richard Gerberding. Thanks for letting me update what's now out after a summer's worth of editing, working with some really great authors. [Alan Childress]